It’s something I’ve wanted to do for decades and I finally did it. I wanted to ride the California Zephyr to, where else, California. I’m still in California. In a matter of days, I’ll be returning via the Southwest Chief.
Equivalent to 4200 horses, Amtrak 39 delivers me to Emeryville near San Francisco.
One of my favorite overnight stopping places on the way to other locations in Utah is the Salt Valley near Arches National Park. In this case, I was on my way to St. George, Utah.
The improbable landscape of Klondike Bluffs area
(Click on photos for a larger view.)
I’ve said before that southern Utah may as well be on another planet.
I was hiking in the tundra a couple of weeks ago and spotted a tailings pile coming out the side of a mountain off in the distance. It was directly below an old mine I already knew about. I made a mental note to explore that area on a future date.
That future date arrived and I went exploring. Given that it is located near a heavily traveled trail, I didn’t expect to find a hole that you could drive a Corvair into.
Entrance to lower Forth of July Mine.
I didn’t have a flashlight with me. But even walking in a little way, taking a flash picture, and cranking up the brightness, I still couldn’t see the end.
Not sure how far it goes
It looks stable, so perhaps with a bright flashlight I’ll go in a bit further on a future hike. I suspect it joins up with a vertical shaft that is running down from 500 feet above. I’ve previously explored the shaft from above and it’s closed. The amount of tailings in front of this entrance indicates quite a bit was excavated.
Around the entrance was the requisite old rusting machinery and boiler.
Old boiler and air compressor. A date stamped on one piece is July 28, 1902.
Boiler with firebox doors still intact.
Top of air compressor storage tank
What's left of the steam engine and compressor.
Nearby cabin.
There were numerous sites where old cabins stood. One was probably the mess hall with a very large wood cooking stove still in the center of it. What I found interesting was there were steam pipes leading to each cabin site. Did they use the steam for heating? Maybe. Typically mining camps would use wood stoves but perhaps this one was different.
